Parker Lot
Parker Lot 'is a webcomic that began May 29, 2009, written and illustrated by BuddyComics. The comic features a middle school student named Matt Parker, the titular character, and his life with friends Jim, Scooter, and Robby the Robot and his parents. The comic features regular comedy, slapstick humor, and even dark humor with graphic violence sometimes a subject. The comic is currently on many sites and is well-recieved by fellow animators that also make successful comics and cartoons. History ''Main articles: "Drugs" and "Parker Lot (original concept)" After struggles to make a new project, BuddyComics made a short cartoon called "Drugs" in March 2009 on his computer. After long work, BuddyComics abandoned the cartoon and left it unfinished. However, in May that year, he designed a little comic for fun called '''The Parkers, featuring a family of two parents (Mr. and Mrs. Parker) a middle school student (Matt Parker), an older brother, and a younger brother. The idea was changed a little bit, without the brothers, and featured Matt and other kids who would become Jim, Scooter Williams, and Robby the Robot in a secret club. He later added more kids such as football players, cool kids, nerds, and teachers. The comic featured a new style of cartooning other than his previous comics. Then that month, after small edits on characters and new synopsis, Parker Lot debuted on deviantART with a few promotional images and two comic strips. A YouTube account was created also, for animations to be added later. The comic proved to be successful with many people asking when Parker Lot would begin. The comic later made its way to such sites as DrunkDuck, SheezyArt, Newgrounds, and many others. Sypnosis The comic deals with the life of Matt Parker, his parents, best friend Jim, and other people he meets in life. He ends up in much trouble with the conflicts Jim gets the two into. His two parents do not understand him, neither does his friend Jim. Matt is usually at school having problems with his teachers and sometimes tries to fit in with the real world. Themes Parker Lot is an average comedy strip, which features slapstick comedy and double entendres throughout each comic. Some comedy can be very dark, such as Jim ripping off his own arm after misunderstanding that Matt needed a hand. Some comedy however, is more Looney Tunes-like humor such as Jim getting crushed by an anvil instead of slipping on a banana in front of him. The character Matt is given a typical personality of feeling one of his own and sometimes misunderstood by others. The comic also deals with average problems and sometimes parodies real topics in life. Characters Main article: List of characters , Principal Fredericks, Mrs. Scald, Matt's Dog, BuddyComics, Mr. Parker; Mrs. Parker, Tom, Skeleton; Baby, Scooter Williams, Robby the Robot, Matt Parker, Jim)]] *'Matt Parker' is a middle school student and main character, aged about 12. He likes video games, cartoons, but isn't the best student in his class. He has two parents, his mom and dad, and a dog named Doug. His best friend is Jim, who is less smarter than him and Matt usually gets in trouble Jim causes. However, they remain good friends overall. He wears a green shirt, jeans, and wavy, black hair. His full name is a combination of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, of South Park fame, as a homage. **First appearance: #001 (May 30, 2009) *'Jim' is Matt's best friend, the same age as Matt. He is the worst student in the class and often gets hurt or catches on fire. His problems usually get Matt involved and he has to find a way out of trouble. Sometimes, he goes to great lengths to rip off his entire arm. He appears the most, next to Matt, who is the lead character. He wears a gray sweatshirt, jeans, and seems to have a 50's-like blonde hair. **First appearance: #006 (June 24, 2009) *[[Scooter Williams|'Scooter Williams']] is the smartest student in the entire class and the whole school. He has more different intrests than his peers, such as studying, reading, and schoolwork. He once built a robot in the Robotics class at his school whom he would name Robby. Scooter won the Nobel Prize for Physics for this accomplishment and making one of the first robots ever. He has hair similar to Matt's, has a red-yellow striped shirt, jeans, and is the only one of his friends to wear glasses. **First appearance: TBA *'Robby the Robot '''is an award-winning robot that is considered one of the first ever. He was built by Scooter in 2004 in the Robotics class. This achievement later got Scooter the Nobel Prize for Physics. Robby is actually smarter than Scooter, featuring unlimited information that is able to be reached. Robby has tentacle-like arms and also has a red torso that looks like a shirt. **First appearance: TBA Comics ''Main article: List of comics Pre-development Main article: Parker Lot (original concept) *001: Parker Lot - School *002: Parker Lot - Names *003: Parker Lot - Lunch *004: Parker Lot - Knockout *005: Parker Lot - Lost *006: Parker Lot - Meeting *007: Parker Lot - Surprise 2009 *001: Parker Lot - School (May 30, 2009) **First appearances: Matt Parker, Skeleton *002: Parker Lot - Names (May 30, 2009) **First appearances: Ms. Scald, Joe Mama *003: Parker Lot - Obvious (June 9, 2009) *004: Parker Lot - Babies (June 15, 2009) **First appearances: Baby *005: Parker Lot - Glue (June 22, 2009) **First appearances: Mrs. Parker *006: Parker Lot - Lending (June 24, 2009) **First appearances: Jim *007: Parker Lot - Playing (June 25, 2009) **First appearances: Mr. Parker *008: Parker Lot - Whales (July 6, 2009) **First appearances: Whales *009: Parker Lot - Fun (July 31, 2009) *010: Parker Lot - Sand (August 1, 2009) *011: Parker Lot - Banana (August 3, 2009) *012: Parker Lot - Bike (August 17, 2009) *013: Parker Lot - Coffee (September 5, 2009) *014: Parker Lot - Problem (September 15, 2009) *015: Parker Lot - Eraser (September 21, 2009) Story Arcs *The Parker Lot Halloween Special (October/November 2009) Production BuddyComics makes his comics with MS Paint and sometimes, if necessary, edits them on Paint.NET. He makes the comics usually weekly and sometimes they end being made daily or even monthly. He says that the easiest character to draw is Jim and the hardest is Scooter. He also says drawing Jim is difficult. He usually makes in .bmp or .png file so it's easier to edit and he only adds .jpg and .gif for the final edit. Making a comic takes only about a few minutes and in some cases, for even a hour. BuddyComics mostly draws with his laptop but finds a regular home computer the best to draw with. Influences The main influences of Parker Lot are the styling and humor of Edd Gould, creator of Eddsworld, who he added as a cameo in the first comic posted. Some other people who inspired BuddyComics into animating include Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, Seth McFarlane of Family Guy, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park, whose names inspired Matt's full name. The first look of Parker Lot looked more like Eddsworld and the second look resembled more Simpsons-like eyes. Matt's appearance was based on BuddyComics' best friend, who happens to be a fan of the show. Matt's personality was based more on Malcolm in the Middle, however. Some of the comedy and slapstick humor came from Tom and Jerry-era cartoons from Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery. Reception The comic opened to generally positive reviews on all of its sits with many positive favorites, comments, ratings, and watchers/subscribers on the official channels. Even Edd Gould, of Eddsworld fame, commented positively on one of BuddyComics' videos on YouTube. Some other fans include Fr33z3Dry, the creator of Jerk Wadz, a fellow Drunk Duck/deviantART webcomic. The comic has also had high anticipation for upcoming comics and even the Halloween Special. National Matt Parker Day Main article: National Matt Parker Day To celebrate Parker Lot, BuddyComics made September 29, 2009 to be called '''National Matt Parker Day '''in honor the character Matt Parker. The celebrations included an art contest to make fan art of Parker Lot and many other small celebrations. See also *BuddyComics *The BuddyComics and Turtwig70 Show *Drugs External links *http://www.parkerlot.deviantart.com *http://www.buddycomics.newgrounds.com *http://www.buddycomics.sheezyart.com *http://www.drunkduck.com/Parker_Lot/index.php